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Tooting Our Own Horn

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Thirty Years at
the Helm

For a look at the JofA
through the eyes of those who helped create it,
we brought together current editor and publisher Colleen
Katz and former editors Barbara J. Shildneck and
Lee Berton to reminisce about their collective
three decades at the top of the masthead.

Lee Berton, editor from
1975 to 1983: When I was editor,
technology was becoming an important issueArthur
Andersen was already selling technology products and
software. When it spun off its consulting practice,
people realized that was the wave of the future. But
I dont think anyone recognized what a huge change
it would make.

Standards overload has been
another issue through all of our tenures. In many
cases, whatever the accountants did to keep up
with new business practices, someone found fault
withso litigation became an issue, too. If you
look at the history of the stock market, it always
fluctuates. In the early 1960s, no one blamed
accountants when stocks did wellbut when stocks
went down, accountants became codefendants.

CPAs face an overwhelming number of
professional and technical developments, and the
JofA has always spelled out what
they need to know. CPAs get information that you
wouldnt receive in other publications, details
about the issues of greatest importance to the
profession. As an example, during my tenure, when
derivatives first emerged, the JofA
reported about indications of problems in this
area. We noted that some of them were so
complicated, people couldnt figure out whether
they were debt or equity.

Barbara J. Shildneck, editor from 1983 to 1987:
Its fascinating to see how issues
evolved during the professions first century, and
how much theyve changed just since the AICPAs
1987 centennial. For that celebration, the
JofA published an award-winning issue
(May 1987), which was a status report of the
professions first 100 years. In its 100-year
history, the JofA has provided an
ongoing forum for the exchange of ideas; reported
on current events and technology; and presented
the latest technical literature, professional
standards and government and tax legislation, as
well as their practical applications. It served as
a testing ground for controversial subjects,
technical innovations and policy decisions. It
broke ground in covering the CPA angle on economic
and societal issues.

I was the editor
when we began getting some very advanced
technology stories. Dana Richardson in particular
was an author who was on top of everything. At a
seminar he talked about Apples Lisa [Lisa,
introduced in 1983, was considered
revolutionary] ; the roomful of people was
fascinated. In very short order, more and more
people recognized that computers would become very
important to accountants.

We also saw
the emergence of international standards,
something the profession has been working on since
the 1960s. We ran a lot of news about these
developments, but we received very few feature
articles because there was not yet a great deal of
practical application. Apropos of this Lee Berton
is right on the mark when he says: International
issues are important at many levels, but here at
home many small firm clients are the corner auto
dealers. They dont rely on complicated financial
reports. They need a CPA to act as a business
doctor to help them.

Colleen
Katz, editor since 1988: Two
particularly important things happened early in my
tenure. First, CPAs became more attuned to
marketing, and practice development and expansion
became a regular part of our coverage. Initially,
some readers said we were focusing on it too much.
Now, of course, its an accepted part of practice
management.

The biggest change,
however, was the total takeover by technology. In
our coverage, we decided to publish very
simplified directions that told readers exactly
how to use software products. We got flooded with
letters thanking us for offering understandable
instructions. Although the tech people in the
profession were very savvy, the average reader
just couldnt keep up with the tremendous
technology onslaught.

Several key
developments influenced the JofAs
content. The emergence of the PFS, ABV and CITP
designations recognized specific skills and
allowed CPAs to move into related fields while
still keeping their core franchise. Also,
responding to the professions changing
demographics, the JofA expanded
coverage of industry sectors when the number of
members in these areas grew to a majority. And
when women accounting graduates regularly
outnumbered men, the JofA began
coverage of work/life balance, recruiting and
retention and other staffing initiatives that to
this day remain vitally important to firms large
and small.

The two biggest issues have
always been the proliferation of standardsweve
always considered it imperative to explain how to
implement themand the expectations gap. People
are always expecting accountants to uncover what
could be so well-hidden its undiscoverable.

Despite all the challenges small practitioners
are probably stronger today than they ever were.
We always focused on helping CPAs in small firms
and small companies understand the impact of new
developmentsthats been an important part of our
mission. Small business owners always say they
love their accountants. And what is America made
up of but small businesses? For them, the CPA is
absolutely the most important business adviser.
Corporate scandals never affected that fact. The
public has a solid respect for CPAs .

Tooting Our Own Horn
Through the years the
Journal of Accountancy has
been recognized many times for its
editorial excellence. Heres a sample of
some of our more recent achievements.

1989 Gold Circle
Award for Excellence in Communication in
the Category of Magazines, given by the
American Society of Association
Executives and its Communication
Section.

1990 Apex Award
for Publication Excellence, given by
Communications Concepts for the most
improved magazine or journal.

Publishing
Excellence Award, given by
MagazineWeek for maintaining
the highest standards in the definition,
recognition and achievement of an
editorial mission.

Publishing
Excellence Award Nomination Certificate,
nominated by MagazineWeek as one of the
best magazines in the category for
maintaining the highest standards in the
definition, recognition and achievement
of an editorial mission.

Society of
National Association Publications First
Place Award for general excellence in
magazines with advertising revenues over
$400,000.

University of
Tennessee accounting educators ranked
the JofA first of 58
business publications for its broad
reach among readers, based on responses
to a survey of 94 CPA firms nationwide.

Roughly 2,000
independent tax professionals ranked the
JofA second for its broad
reach among readers, based on research
conducted by Tiburon Strategic, H.D.
Vest Financial Services and the National
Association of Enrolled Agents.

Are you working with the best technology? Do you know how to help your clients determine if their technology stack measures up? In this free report, J. Carlton Collins, CPA, explains how to answer those questions via a technology assessment engagement.